


Early Years

by Lasafara



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fluff, Guardian!Gabriel, baby!Castiel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-16
Updated: 2014-05-16
Packaged: 2018-01-25 00:26:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1622390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lasafara/pseuds/Lasafara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabriel's adventures raising a young Castiel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Early Years

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thepinupchemist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thepinupchemist/gifts).
  * Inspired by [The World Crashing All Around](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1519844) by [thepinupchemist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thepinupchemist/pseuds/thepinupchemist). 



The fledgeling showed up just as Gabriel was getting ready for bed. He rolled his eyes, but dutifully headed out to pick it up. He could do one more delivery tonight, he supposed.  
  
When he read the card, he choked a little. That couldn’t possibly be right. The infant stared up at him suspiciously, and Gabriel couldn’t help but swallow hard. This one was his. He lifted the fledgeling up out of its basket. Its wings were still wet, covered in the soft down that all baby angels had when they were born. It was too dark outside to tell the color, and the down wouldn’t reveal the final color of the wings anyway. Its eyes were still blue, though that could change as it got older.  
  
And it was dirty. Great. Gabriel shifted the fledgeling to one arm and picked up the basket it… he had come in. Might as well get used to the idea, because it wasn’t going to change. He could, he supposed, wrap the fledgeling back up and head over to Michael’s place with him, explain the card got lost, but hey, he’s yours, take care. He could. But he wouldn’t. He liked his job, and he didn’t want to know what Dad would do if he decided to finangle his way out of the first responsibility Dad gave him. So he sucked it up and…  
  
Fuck. No diapers.  
  
Dropping the basket on his table, he grabbed some paper towels, a wash cloth, and a safety pin, and made do. Then, strapping the fledgeling to his chest with a sheet repurposed to a makeshift sling, he headed out to the Repository. Angels didn’t have stores, they didn’t buy things, but they did have places to get things they couldn’t make for themselves. The Repository was one of those.  
  
Good thing the kid was a quiet one, he thought, as he ducked into the baby section and picked up the necessary goods. Formula, bottles, pacifiers, and most importantly, diapers. There were about fifteen different sizes of diapers in the aisle, and Gabriel stood there for a moment, stumped. Finally he just grabbed one of each of the three smallest, figuring the kid would grow into them. There wasn’t much else he couldn’t do without for tonight, and tomorrow he could go hit up Balthazar for what fledgelings actually needed.  
  
That’s right. Tomorrow.  
  
“Ah-ba!” The little one finally exclaimed, pulling Gabriel out of his thoughts.  
  
“Kiddo, I hope that’s your taste in music, because big bro could use some Dancing Queen right about now.”  
  
And he pushed his cart to the check out, humming.

****

At nine months, the monster started to crawl, and Gabriel discovered what panic meant. Any door left open, the kid was out. Any cabinets unlocked were opened, and the contents dragged out. He’d fallen into the tub, _twice_.  
  
The first time, Gabriel had nearly had a heart attack. The tub was huge, and while the fall wasn’t too far, there was no give to the seat of the tub. He hadn’t realized he’d left the bathroom door open. The fledgeling ended up with a huge bump on his forehead, and it was hard to tell who was crying harder, Gabriel or Castiel. With the brat in his arms, screaming bloody murder, Gabriel had speed-dialed Balthazar. Balthy had become his go-to guy for _what the fuck do I do_ emergencies.  
  
Balthazar had very calmly reminded him that angels had Grace, and could heal.  
  
Gabriel had hung up on him.  
  
So it turned out falling in the tub didn’t cause immediate irreversible brain damage and the monster was more durable than he looked. That didn’t mean he needed to go doing it a second time. It’s like the kid had a death wish.  
  
Currently, however, Castiel was no where to be found. Gabriel had checked every room in the house, four times. He’d been around and around the radius of his house, and he’d been very careful to create a fledgeling-proof perimeter that Cas couldn’t cross without Gabriel present. He was sure the kid was in the kitchen. The pots and pans were still scattered across the floor where he’d left them after he’d finished banging on them.  
  
It’d been the silence that’d clued him in. That old movie quote, “It’s quiet. Too quiet,” had echoed through his head when he’d heard the pots and pans go quiet.  
  
He’d searched the house once, then gone over it again more carefully. Then again in panic mode. Then he’d called Balthazar while going over everything one more time. Now he was sitting in his kitchen, trying not to cry, as he waited for Balthazar to show up.  
  
A twitch out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He turned, then leaned over to look inside the currently pot-less cabinets.  
  
There, nestled comfortably on his side, sound asleep, was Cas.  
  
The little monster.  
  
Dialing quickly, he barely waited for Balthy to greet him before he said, “Found him.”  
  
Then he hung up. Reaching inside the cabinets, he gently extricated Cas from them and lifted the fledgeling into his arms. Cas murmured a little, burying his face against Gabriel’s neck and pounding his little fists into Gabriel’s chest in protest.  
  
“Come on, buckaroo. Crib time.”  
  
“Daaaaa.”  
  
“That’s right. Dancing Queen.” And he sang the little nuisance to sleep.

****

At a year old, Cas was starting, haltingly, to walk. And suddenly there was a whole new set of things to worry about. He’d already learned that drawers were fun to pull out; now he was climbing into them. Gabriel had learned his lesson though. His manhunts were more thorough, and so far he’d never lost the kid for good. ‘So far’ being the key phrase here.  
  
He was also learning to talk.  
  
“Gab!”  
  
Gabriel looked down at his charge. “Yes?”  
  
“ _Gab_!” Cas repeated, as though this cleared things up.  
  
“You need to learn more than one word, brainiac.”  
  
The fledgeling was standing, one hand fisted in Gabriel’s pants for balance, with his wings spread wide and flapping erratically.  
  
“Gab!”  
  
Gabriel sighed and stopped what he was doing to pick up Cas. The fledgeling immediately buried his head against Gabriel’s neck and flapped his wings hard. Gabriel ended up with a face full of down.  
  
“What’s the problem, Cas? What’s going on?” he asked, spitting out down.  
  
Then it dawned on him. Cas was started to shed the down all fledgelings were born with. That meant he was growing in pinfeathers, and that was hella uncomfortable. Or so he’d been told. He didn’t actually remember that.  
  
“Okay, featherhead. Time for a bath.” Stripping down, he took his fledgeling into the bathroom. This wasn’t going to happen all in one day, but he could make things better with a bath, a good wingrub, and some music. Turning to his player, he queued up their favorite. “Ready for some Abba, kid?”  
  
“Abba!”

****

At two years old, there was no fucking containing him. Cas had learned to fly early, and never ever ever _ever_ seemed to stop. Gabriel had left the kid with Balthazar for a day to make an emergency run Earth-side to get a freaking backpack leash. He couldn’t take him anywhere because the brat would dash off down the candy aisle and not come back.  
  
The first time he’d thought the kid would learn his lesson, if Gabriel waited him out. But no. He got called up to the front of the Repository _four separate times_.  
  
That was when he’d bought the leash.  
  
Now the little monster was practically dragging him around by the leash, and he wasn’t sure whether that was better or worse. He wanted to have playdates with other fledgelings Cas’s age. He wanted to take Cas around and show him new and exciting things. Hell, he’d love to take Cas down to Earth and show him all the neat things the planet had to offer an angel.  
  
But he couldn’t, because he couldn’t even keep the fledgeling close.  
  
Suddenly the tugging stopped. Gabriel almost fell over at the lack of it.  
  
And then he had a two year old alighting on his shoulders. Cas wrapped his arms around Gabriel’s head. “Abba?”  
  
His entire body filling with affection, Gabriel patted the toddler and grinned. “You got it, kiddo.”


End file.
